Pat Robertson`s Social Engineering

February 07, 1988|By Clarence Page.

Republican presidential hopeful Pat Robertson accuses Planned Parenthood of working toward ``a master race.`` That takes more than a little cheek on his part. Anyone familiar with Robertson`s record should know he is not above a little social engineering of his own.

Regular readers of this column will recall how Robertson last fall was sounding an alarm over ``the birth dearth.`` He was worried that the West is not producing enough offspring to pay the bills for this generation when it gets old and that our way of life is threatened by the Third World, which is having more babies than ever.

He said in one New Hampshire speech, for example, that ``we will no longer have any dominance in the world. Our culture and our values will at that point be squeezed out by many other conflicting ideologies, by other national interests.``

You also may recall his long-range solutions. In Robertson`s America, there would be no abortion, for starters, so we would have more babies. Then he would encourage larger families through increases in existing tax deductions for dependents and the creation of new tax breaks for ``women who want to stay home and look after their children.``

How would this loss of revenue be covered? Robertson does not spell that out, although he often expresses a desire to cut welfare benefits and other programs that help what he calls ``the less productive`` segments of our society.

You also may recall that since the more needy and prolific people of the world tend to be of, shall we say, darker complexions, some folks suspected Robertson actually might be telling us that the world needs to shift resources to encourage more white babies, and pretty darn quick, too.

Robertson vigorously denies any racial implications, but if you believe that, I have a nice bridge to sell you.

Anyway, our ``Robertson Watch`` continues. As we rejoin the campaign we find Robertson, while testifying last week before a legislative committee in New Hampshire, accusing Planned Parenthood of having ``a long-range goal`` to ``provide a master race.``

He dredged up an old charge that Margaret Sanger, the nurse who founded the organization more than a half-century ago, advocated eugenics, the belief that the human race can be improved through selective breeding, and that ``she and her disciples wanted to sterilize blacks, Jews, mental defectives and fundamentalist Christians.``

Therefore, Robertson said he supports moves to cut federal funding for organizations like Planned Parenthood, including the gag order the Reagan administration has announced it wants to put on all agencies that receive federal funding for family-planning programs.

Under new rules scheduled to go into effect March 3, all such clinics will be prohibited from providing abortion information, even when patients request it. Planned Parenthood, among other organizations, announced plans to file suit to stop the order.

No doubt the folks at Planned Parenthood can defend themselves well. I find it rather amusing that Robertson would pin a neo-Nazi label on an organization that has a black woman as its national president and a makeup I am sure can at least match a typical Robertson-for-President rally for reflecting a cross-section of American ethnicity.

Sanger, to the best of my knowledge, believed less in eugenics than in choice, something doctrinaire folks like Robertson seem to have a tough time dealing with. Having seen the often-dreary results of unplanned parenthood, Sanger started an organization to help people in all income levels receive family-planning information and services rich folks could afford to take for granted, even when abortion was illegal.

The rule change affects about 4,000 family-planning centers that serve an estimated 5 million low-income women.

Unable to stop abortion through the courts, the Reagan administration, by its gag order, would at least impede the spread of information and services to those who go to federally funded clinics, people who tend to be in the greatest financial need and most vulnerable to back-alley abortionists in the absence of safer facilities.

It is important to note that this move goes beyond most anti-abortion zealotry by impeding not only those who use abortion as last-resort birth control but also women whose pregnancies threaten their lives. That is why it has been condemned by the American Medical Association and other doctor groups as a cruel intrusion into doctor-patient relationships.

Yet Robertson is all for it and, if he had his way, would go much further. It`s a good thing this former television evangelist hasn`t got a prayer of getting to the White House. Pat Robertson`s America sounds like a great place for a master race.